Jiří Mahen

Jiří Mahen (born Antonín Vančura; 12 December 1882 – 22 May 1939) was a Czech novelist and playwright. He was a prolific author and his literary work also includes essays, poetry, scientific articles, manuals and fairy tales. He was a significant figure in cultural life in the city of Brno.

Life

Jiří Mahen was born Antonín Vančura on 12 December 1882, into an evangelical family. He was the third of thirteen children and his father was a baker. His second cousin was the novelist Vladislav Vančura. He studied at the gymnasiums in Čáslav and in Mladá Boleslav, where he graduated in 1902. In Mladá Boleslav, he joined the group of anarchists around Stanislav Kostka Neumann, together with his friends František Gellner and Rudolf Těsnohlídek. His literary beginnings took place at this time, when his poems were published in Neumann's magazine Nový kult.

At the age of 19, Vančura chose the pseudonym Jiří Maheu, after the character Maheu in the book Germinal by Émile Zola. Due to a printing error, the name was distorted to Mahen, which Vančura liked and he kept it. His grave, designed by architect František Kalivoda and with a tombstone by sculptor Jiří Marek, is protected as a cultural monument.

Selected work Jiří Mahen was a prolific writer. He started out as a poet, but became known primarily as a novelist and playwright. His important texts are the novels Kamarádi svobody (Friends of Freedom) and Měsíc (The Moon), a novel involving poetism, the plays Mrtvé moře (Dead Sea), Jánošík (played in the National Theatre in Prague), and Generace (Generation). He was the author of many books of essays, of which Rybářská knížka (Fishermen's Book), is the best known.

Several cities and towns in the Czech Republic have a street named after Jiří Mahen, including Prague (Košíře), Brno, Ostrava and Ústí nad Labem.